Peter Salmon: will rent a flat chose to MediaCity:UK in Salford. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

BBC North director Peter Salmon, who is leading the transfer of more than 1,500 posts from London to MediaCity:UK in Salford, will not be relocating with his family to the north-west for the foreseeable future.

As staff unrest about relocation plans rises, Salmon said in a statement to MediaGuardian that he will be renting a flat close to MediaCity:UK "for the moment". He said that this because he does not want to disrupt his children's education at a critical stage.

On his appointment last year much was made of the fact that Salmon, a window cleaner's son from Burnley, Lancashire, was the right person to provide leadership because he relished his roots.

However, a BBC statement now says "he will make the move to Salford when the time is right". It gave no indication of when that might be.

"By taking the rental option at this stage he will not take up any other relocation assistance from the BBC when he moves at that later date," it said.

Those familiar with the situation say that his wife, former Coronation Street actor Sarah Lancashire, has told friends she intends to continue living in the south-east.

The transfer of staff in BBC Sport, CBBC, BBC Learning and Radio Five Live takes place next year.

The director of Future Media & Technology, Eric Huggers, called MediaCity:UK "the BBC's centre for the internet age" when the staff transfer was announced, but he is not expected to move.

Salmon, a former controller of BBC1 and director of BBC Sport, started his role as BBC North on 1 November last year, joining the BBC's executive management board.

The BBC annual report for 2009-10 showed he earned £193,000 for five months in the post, which adds up to an annual salary of about £463,000. In the most recently released executive expenses he claimed £1,400 for rail trips between London and locations ranging from Salford to Newcastle, from February and March, as he made visits to his region.

Critics point out that the highly paid executive team of the BBC are able to personally foot the costs of commuting between two places in the longer term, unlike their more modestly paid staff.

It is unclear yet whether Richard Deverell, the chief operating officer working with Salmon and the strategist behind the transfer to Salford, will move with his wife and three young children from Guildford in Surrey, or also rent a flat.

Another anomaly is in the BBC's religion and ethics department, which has long been based in Manchester, and which languished under a former executive, Alan Bookbinder, who did not relocate to Manchester from London.

It now emerges that the current head of religion and ethics, Aaquil Ahmed – also born and raised in the north-west – who was recruited from Channel 4 20 months ago, has declined to move to Manchester, to be close to his production team, and lives in London.

The BBC now says that it was made clear from the beginning that the post of commissioner and head of religion and ethics would be split between Manchester and London, and that Ahmed "fulfils a unique role" as head of genre and commissioner.

It has always been clear "he would work two days a week in Manchester and three days in London", a statement said. "He has to be in London for meetings with network controllers and independents. When he is in Manchester he stays with a colleague rather than using a hotel."

Kay Benbow, the newly appointed controller of CBeebies, who lives in Buckinghamshire, has made a firm commitment to moving herself and her family to the area as part of BBC Children's programming.

She succeeded Michael Carrington, who agreed to move to the north-west last year but then landed a London-based job running the Cartoon Network in January this year.

Some senior executives are reported to have said that, despite making a commitment to move, and taking up new posts beneath Salmon on that basis, their personal circumstances have now changed.

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